Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

PatrickZ80 · Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:22 pm

After an idea from this thread, but slightly different:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1396945

In most countries the busiest airport serves the capital, however there are exceptions. I'll name one to start with, Switzerland. The capital of Switzerland is Bern, but the busiest airport is in Zurich. Bern only has a small regional airport. Zurich may be the largest city, but it's not the capital.

What other examples can you think of?

zakuivcustom · Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:06 pm

I'll start with some fairly obvious one:
- USA: In fact, the busiest of the airport near Washington DC (BWI) is only ranked #22. Traffic being split into 3 airports certainly didn't help.
- Canada: YOW being the 6th busiest airport in Canada. As Ottawa is picked as the capital b/c of its location b/t Toronto and Montreal, it's not surprising.
- Australia: CBR is only 8th busiest. Similar to Canada, Canberra is chosen b/c it's right between Sydney and Melbourne
- Brazil: BSB is 3rd busiest behind the two Sao Paulo airports. SP and Rio, of course, are much larger city than Brasilia
- Germany: FRA being busiest, while TXL is only 4th. Germany is also somewhat unique b/c Frankfurt is not the largest city/largest metro area in the country.

Few that involved moving of capital:
- Nigeria: ABV (Abuja) smaller than LOS (Lagos). Lagos was the capital for years, though.
- Tanzania: DAR (Dar es Salaam) being a much, much larger airport than DOD (Dodoma). In fact, ZNZ (Zanzibar) or JRO (Kilimanjaro) are also much larger than DOD, which can only handle small planes. Similar to Nigeria, the capital was moved from its largest city to a much smaller city.
- Kazakhstan: ALA (Almaty) is still busier than TSE (Astana). Again, capital was moved from the former to the latter.
- Myanmar: Both RGN (Yangon) and MDL (Mandalay) are busier than NYT (Naypyitaw). Capital was Yangon for many years, though.

alex0easy · Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:08 pm

So...this is basically a thread on "countries where the capital is not the largest city"?

zakuivcustom · Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:29 pm

alex0easy wrote:
So...this is basically a thread on "countries where the capital is not the largest city"?

Not necessarily. Berlin is technically the largest city (by city limit...not metro area) in Germany, but its airports are nowhere near the busiest. On the flip side, Shanghai is larger than Beijing in terms of population, but thanks to the split airport in Shanghai, PEK is the busiest airport in China.

There are few other cases:
1. The capital moved from the largest city to a smaller one, usually more "centrally located" geographically.
2. Tourism traffic wins out against traffic to the capital. Quick examples are PUJ and MBJ.

XAM2175 · Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:10 pm

PatrickZ80 wrote:
I'll name one to start with, Switzerland. The capital of Switzerland is Bern, but the busiest airport is in Zurich. Bern only has a small regional airport. Zurich may be the largest city, but it's not the capital.

Pedantry being A.net's favourite pass-time, I'll pull you up on this one: Switzerland, as a result of its history and the nature of how it came to a single nation, very deliberately has no defined capital. The 1848 Constitution provided only that the establishment of Federal institutions was a matter for the Federal Assembly and they did indeed in that same year vote to place the seat of government in Bern. However, other bodies were placed and remain elsewhere, such as the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, the Federal Administrative and Patent Courts in St. Gallen, and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The 1999 Constitution changed nothing about this situation and so Bern has no official status as capital, only the de-facto appellation of "Federal City".

A similar arrangement, though with different reasoning and a higher level of formality, exists in South Africa, which holds only that Parliament shall sit at Cape Town but even then that Parliament may move itself. This has not happened thus far, and beyond that the government has spread itself out to have the President and Cabinet sit in Pretoria, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

zakuivcustom wrote:
- Germany: FRA being busiest, while TXL is only 4th. Germany is also somewhat unique b/c Frankfurt is not the largest city/largest metro area in the country.
...
Few that involved moving of capital:..

Germany is of particular note in that regard because it has experienced a change in capital that didn't alter its presence in the list - from the occupation in 1945 to the establishment of West Germany as a sovereign state in 1949 there was no capital, and from then until 1990 it was Bonn (allegedly on the basis that if it were to be Frankfurt it would prove too difficult to move back to Berlin whenever reunification occurred).

sccutler · Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:20 pm

Belize - busiest airport by far is in Belize City, while the capitol city is Belmopan.

zakuivcustom · Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:26 pm

A few other:
Morocco - CMN (Casablanca), being the largest city, not surprisingly also has the busiest airport in the country. RBA (Rabat), the capital, only has the 5th busiest airport. The former capital (and 2nd largest city), Fez, has the 4th busiest airport in the country, behind RAK (Marrakesh) and AGA (Agadir). Both RAK and AGA received way more tourism traffic than RBA.
Cabo Verde - As I stated in the other thread, while RAI (Praia) is the capital and largest city in CV, SID (Sal) is way busier due to its much larger amount of tourist traffic. BVC (Boa Vista) is not far behind RAI.
Bolivia - VVI in Santa Cruz is busier than LPB in La Paz due to LPB's attitude and its inability to handle long-haul flights. Santa Cruz is also the larger city. Bolivia's constitutional capital, Sucre (SRE), only have a tiny airport.

jubaexpress · Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:26 pm

South Africa's capital is Pretoria but the biggest airport is OR Tambo in Johannesburg. Uganda' s capital is Kampala but the airport is famously in Entebbe.

directorguy · Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:41 pm

DXB is the UAE's busiest airport and serves that country's largest city Dubai. It is around 90-120 minutes from the national capital Abu Dhabi.
JED is Saudi Arabia's busiest airport and is no where near Riyadh.
Casablanca is Morocco's largest city served by CMN which is around 100km away from Rabat the capital.

FlyRow · Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:51 pm

Istanbul IST and Istanbul SAW, Antalya AYT are all three way busier then Ankara ESB.

63.7million / 31.3 million / 25.9 million compared to 15.8 million

---------------

Lagos Airport is busier then the airport of the capital Abuja. 4.3 million compared to 6.3 million of the first airport.

--------------

Canada's main Ottowa Macdonald aiport is smaller then a lot of airports at 4.3 million passengers. While Montreal is close, it's still 150km+ so wouldn't really call it "near".

XAM2175 · Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:32 pm

jubaexpress wrote:
South Africa's capital is Pretoria but the biggest airport is OR Tambo in Johannesburg.

Comprehensively proving that people don't bother to read the thread before posting, given:

XAM2175 wrote:
A similar arrangement [to Switzerland not having an official capital], though with different reasoning and a higher level of formality, exists in South Africa; [the Constitution of which] holds only that Parliament shall sit at Cape Town but even then that Parliament may move itself. This has not happened thus far, and beyond that the government has spread itself out to have the President and Cabinet sit in Pretoria, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

zakuivcustom · Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:33 pm

XAM2175 wrote:
jubaexpress wrote:
South Africa's capital is Pretoria but the biggest airport is OR Tambo in Johannesburg.

Comprehensively proving that people don't bother to read the thread before posting, given:

XAM2175 wrote:
A similar arrangement [to Switzerland not having an official capital], though with different reasoning and a higher level of formality, exists in South Africa; [the Constitution of which] holds only that Parliament shall sit at Cape Town but even then that Parliament may move itself. This has not happened thus far, and beyond that the government has spread itself out to have the President and Cabinet sit in Pretoria, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

To add on, Pretoria is actually served through JNB, since there's no airport with scheduled service in Pretoria.

For that matter, his other example:

jubaexpress wrote:
Uganda' s capital is Kampala but the airport is famously in Entebbe.

By all definition, EBB serves Kampala, and is not even that far from the capital city. You can't fly to Kampala (no airport with scheduled service), only Entebbe.

While I'm still in Africa, there is Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire being one of those really weird case. Yamoussoukro does have an airstrip, but I don't think there are any scheduled service there. With no other airports with scheduled service nearby, I believe the "nearest" airport that serves the capital would be Abidjan, the former capital and largest city of Cote d'Ivoire. Abidjan is not exactly "near" Yamoussoukro, though (It's something like 236km).

conaly · Wed Jun 20, 2018 5:41 am

New Zealand: capital Wellington, largest city and airport Auckland.
Pakistan: capital Islamabat, largest city and airport Karachi.

Tenaja85 · Wed Jun 20, 2018 5:08 pm

Although Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, SGN handled 12 million more pax than HAN in 2017.

DaveFly · Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:03 am

Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

zakuivcustom · Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:21 pm

DaveFly wrote:
Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). :white:

.

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

DaveFly · Fri Jun 22, 2018 2:37 pm

zakuivcustom wrote:
DaveFly wrote:
Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). .

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

I did indeed note that Hamilton and BDA were quite close anyway. I was under the mistaken impression that Bermuda is a sovereign country since it has its own flag and currency.

Please accept my deepest apologies.

zakuivcustom · Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:45 pm

DaveFly wrote:
zakuivcustom wrote:
DaveFly wrote:
Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). .

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

I did indeed note that Hamilton and BDA were quite close anyway. I was under the mistaken impression that Bermuda is a sovereign country since it has its own flag and currency.

Please accept my deepest apologies.

To be fair, having own flag and currency doesn't necessarily mean it's a sovereign state. Cayman Island has its own currency (It's also a UK Oversea Territory), so does Aruba, Curacao, and Sint-Maarten (Part of Kingdom of Netherlands).

Either way, just hard to say BDA is not "near" Hamilton, especially since Bermuda does not have another airport, unlike cases like NAN (vs. SUV), or even KEF (vs. RKV) in Iceland.

DTWLAX · Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:47 pm

Sydney is the busiest airport in Australia but the capital is Canberra

kimimm19 · Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:13 pm

Zurich for Switzerland.

XAM2175 · Fri Jun 22, 2018 10:06 pm

kimimm19 wrote:
Zurich for Switzerland.

XAM2175 wrote:
Comprehensively proving that people don't bother to read the thread before posting, given:

XAM2175 wrote:
PatrickZ80 wrote:
I'll name one to start with, Switzerland. The capital of Switzerland is Bern, but the busiest airport is in Zurich. Bern only has a small regional airport. Zurich may be the largest city, but it's not the capital.

Pedantry being A.net's favourite pass-time, I'll pull you up on this one: Switzerland, as a result of its history and the nature of how it came to a single nation, very deliberately has no defined capital. The 1848 Constitution provided only that the establishment of Federal institutions was a matter for the Federal Assembly and they did indeed in that same year vote to place the seat of government in Bern. However, other bodies were placed and remain elsewhere, such as the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, the Federal Administrative and Patent Courts in St. Gallen, and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The 1999 Constitution changed nothing about this situation and so Bern has no official status as capital, only the de-facto appellation of "Federal City".

Brickell305 · Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:47 pm

zakuivcustom wrote:
DaveFly wrote:
Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). .

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

Re Bermuda, LF Wade Int'l definitely serves Hamilton. There's no other airport on island. Re St. Lucia, while there are two airports, both serve the entire island (including Castries, the capital). The difference between the two is that the airport in Castries has a runway that is too small for large jets to operate there and as such only sees regional turboprops. UVF is where the larger international carriers operate. However, in terms of service to the island, it's all one market. There's no distinct market for Vieux Fort vs. Castries. Similar situations occur in Georgetown, Guyana, Belize and Dominica where there's a small airport closer to the capital city but the main airport is further away but still effectively serves the capital. This is of course a distinct situation from places like Jamaica (where MBJ & KIN are distinct markets) and the DR (where PUJ & SDQ are distinct markets).

And while I know we are debating whether to include dependent territories, another Caribbean example (outside of Jamaica/DR) is the Turks and Caicos Islands. Capital is Cockburn Town on Grand Turk Island which has its own airport. Largest airport is PLS which is on the more inhabited island of Providenciales.

zakuivcustom · Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:04 pm

Brickell305 wrote:
zakuivcustom wrote:
DaveFly wrote:
Bermuda. The largest city and capital is Hamilton. The airport is on the other side of the island, near St George’s. Of course, the island is small anyway, so it’s not as if the airport is too far away from the capital.

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). .

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

Re Bermuda, LF Wade Int'l definitely serves Hamilton. There's no other airport on island. Re St. Lucia, while there are two airports, both serve the entire island (including Castries, the capital). The difference between the two is that the airport in Castries has a runway that is too small for large jets to operate there and as such only sees regional turboprops. UVF is where the larger international carriers operate. However, in terms of service to the island, it's all one market. There's no distinct market for Vieux Fort vs. Castries. Similar situations occur in Georgetown, Guyana, Belize and Dominica where there's a small airport closer to the capital city but the main airport is further away but still effectively serves the capital. This is of course a distinct situation from places like Jamaica (where MBJ & KIN are distinct markets) and the DR (where PUJ & SDQ are distinct markets).

I would say GEO (Cheddi Jagan) vs. OGL (Ogle Airstrip, in Georgetown Guyana itself) is not alot different than NRT and HND in big picture (Yes, HND is a lot bigger, but I'm talking about geographic location). Same I can say for PBM (Paramaribo-Zanderij or Johan Adolf Pengel Airport, located well outside Paramaribo) vs. ORG (Zorg en Hoop Airport, which is a tiny airport in the middle of Paramaribo) anyway in Suriname.

P.S. The capital of Belize is NOT Belize City, but Belmopan. Belize City itself does have two airports like you said (BZE/Philip Goldson Airport in outskirt, TZA/Belize City Municipal/Sir Barry Bowen Airport in central Belize City), but Belmopan has its own airport, albeit extremely tiny and only received props from BZE or TZA (and other small Belize airstrips). (Belize City and Belmopan are ~80km apart, so I would hardly consider it the same air market, although anyone going to Belmopan is most likely flying into BZE.

Brickell305 · Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:21 pm

zakuivcustom wrote:
Brickell305 wrote:
zakuivcustom wrote:

Bermuda is not a country, though (It's a UK Oversea Territory). .

And quite frankly, BDA is only 15km to central Hamilton. NAN (Nadi Airport in Fiji and the busiest), for example, is ~200km from Suva, the capital (Suva has its own airport also). Even then, SUV (Suva Airport) is about 23km from central Suva. Another example, UVF (St. Lucia), is 50+ km from Castries, with Castries (SLU) having its own airport also.

Re Bermuda, LF Wade Int'l definitely serves Hamilton. There's no other airport on island. Re St. Lucia, while there are two airports, both serve the entire island (including Castries, the capital). The difference between the two is that the airport in Castries has a runway that is too small for large jets to operate there and as such only sees regional turboprops. UVF is where the larger international carriers operate. However, in terms of service to the island, it's all one market. There's no distinct market for Vieux Fort vs. Castries. Similar situations occur in Georgetown, Guyana, Belize and Dominica where there's a small airport closer to the capital city but the main airport is further away but still effectively serves the capital. This is of course a distinct situation from places like Jamaica (where MBJ & KIN are distinct markets) and the DR (where PUJ & SDQ are distinct markets).

I would say GEO (Cheddi Jagan) vs. OGL (Ogle Airstrip, in Georgetown Guyana itself) is not alot different than NRT and HND in big picture (Yes, HND is a lot bigger, but I'm talking about geographic location). Same I can say for PBM (Paramaribo-Zanderij or Johan Adolf Pengel Airport, located well outside Paramaribo) vs. ORG (Zorg en Hoop Airport, which is a tiny airport in the middle of Paramaribo) anyway in Suriname.

P.S. The capital of Belize is NOT Belize City, but Belmopan. Belize City itself does have two airports like you said (BZE/Philip Goldson Airport in outskirt, TZA/Belize City Municipal/Sir Barry Bowen Airport in central Belize City), but Belmopan has its own airport, albeit extremely tiny and only received props from BZE or TZA (and other small Belize airstrips). (Belize City and Belmopan are ~80km apart, so I would hardly consider it the same air market, although anyone going to Belmopan is most likely flying into BZE.

The last sentence is exactly why I would say it's the same air market. There is no other option for international travelers other than BZE. If someone were flying from New York and their final destination were Belmopan, they'd have to fly to BZE and it's not simply a case of a lack of demand causing a lack of flights but simply that the airstrip in Belmopan is too small for that type of traffic. The TCI example that I cite above is different in the sense that while Grand Turk's airport currently only sees flights to Providenciales, that is primarily due to lack of demand to other destinations as the airport there is definitely capable operationally of receiving international flights. Similar (though not exactly the same) as Trinidad and Tobago where TAB only sees a handful of int'l services due primarily to lack of demand but remains a distinct separate air market. POS does not serve TAB directly similar to how PLS does not serve Grand Turk directly. With BZE, it's different BZE is the effective sole airport for the entire country for international service by design.

Also, re the distance between the two, I don't put much stock in that for it being a separate air market. For example, Negril in Jamaica is 80 KM from MBJ but that's the airport that serves it. Siparia in Trinidad is 80 KM from POS but that's the airport that serves it. It's different for smaller countries/islands where one airport can effectively serve the entire country or island as the case may be.

csavel · Mon Jun 25, 2018 11:36 pm

Benin

Capital Porto-Novo
Biggest city and busiest airport is Cotonou

although they are only like 40km apart

and of course Bhutan has got Thimpu as capitol but Paro as its sole international airport.

zakuivcustom · Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:51 am

csavel wrote:
Benin

Capital Porto-Novo
Biggest city and busiest airport is Cotonou

although they are only like 40km apart

and of course Bhutan has got Thimpu as capitol but Paro as its sole international airport.

Porto-Novo doesn't even have its own airport, though, and is served by, well, the airport in Cotonou.

Same I'll say for Thimphu - it's served by Paro Airport. Just b/c Paro Airport isn't in Thimphu doesn't mean it's not Thimphu's Airport. (To me, it's the same thing as Entebbe Airport vs. Kampala).

Seriously, for those using distance, you got cases like Taiwan (If you consider TW a country, not a fact that people always agree with), with its busiest airport located in Taoyuan, 40+km from central Taipei. But will anyone argue that Taoyuan Airport doesn't served Taipei? (Taoyuan Airport doesn't have "Taipei" in its name anymore, either).

EDIT:
A country that haven't been mentioned yet.
TIV (Tivat) has more pax (although not as many aircraft movements) than TGD (Podgorica), the airport in Montenegro's capital. The difference is not big, though (TIV 1,129,720; TGD 1,055,142). TIV received way more (albeit highly seasonal) tourist traffic than TGD.

jcancel · Mon Dec 31, 2018 10:32 pm

In Israel TLV, the big airport, is between de facto (and de jure) capital and largest city Jerusalem and major city Tel Aviv. Atarot Airport in Jerusalem proper closed, though Tel Aviv does have a small local airport, Sde Dov.

vhqpa · Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:53 am

Another one is Fiji. NAN being the main gateway as opposed to SUV serving the capital but only having limited International service.

smallmj · Tue Jan 01, 2019 3:53 pm

zakuivcustom wrote:
- Canada: YOW being the 6th busiest airport in Canada. As Ottawa is picked as the capital b/c of its location b/t Toronto and Montreal, it's not surprising.

Only partly true. Ottawa was also chosen as capital because it is further from the US border, and less susceptible to US aggression as in 1812.

masi1157 · Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:46 pm

Strange that nobody mentioned Iceland yet. Reykjavik is the capital, but its airport RKV is far less busy than KEF, which is close to the city of Keflavik but some 50km from Reykjavik. I could add Greenland with the capital Nuuk and its airport GOH, but the busiest airport SFJ in Kangerlussuaq. But somebody will immediately tell me that Greenland is not a sovereign country. Honduras is a sovereign country though, the capital is Tegucigalpa with the airport TGU, but SUL near San Pedro Sula is busier.

Gruß, masi1157

Eso91 · Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:16 am

masi1157 wrote:
Strange that nobody mentioned Iceland yet. Reykjavik is the capital, but its airport RKV is far less busy than KEF, which is close to the city of Keflavik but some 50km from Reykjavik. I could add Greenland with the capital Nuuk and its airport GOH, but the busiest airport SFJ in Kangerlussuaq. But somebody will immediately tell me that Greenland is not a sovereign country. Honduras is a sovereign country though, the capital is Tegucigalpa with the airport TGU, but SUL near San Pedro Sula is busier.

Gruß, masi1157

True, but you also have to consider that KEF is the main airport that serves Reykjavik.

masi1157 · Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:50 am

Eso91 wrote:
True, but you also have to consider that KEF is the main airport that serves Reykjavik.

Well, KEF is basically the only international airport in Iceland (no international flights anymore at AEY and EGS, only a few flights to Greenland and Faeroe Islands at RKV), so it serves not only Reykjavik but the entire country. Local flights within Iceland are mostly to/from RKV though.

Another one that strangely has not been mentioned yet, given how US-centric this forum has become: The busiest airport in the USA serves neither their capital nor the largest city.

Gruß, masi1157

IADCA · Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:40 pm

masi1157 wrote:
Eso91 wrote:
True, but you also have to consider that KEF is the main airport that serves Reykjavik.

Well, KEF is basically the only international airport in Iceland (no international flights anymore at AEY and EGS, only a few flights to Greenland and Faeroe Islands at RKV), so it serves not only Reykjavik but the entire country. Local flights within Iceland are mostly to/from RKV though.

Another one that strangely has not been mentioned yet, given how US-centric this forum has become: The busiest airport in the USA serves neither their capital nor the largest city.

Gruß, masi1157

The trouble with your position that Iceland and the USA hadn't been mentioned yet is that both were already mentioned: USA in the second post of the thread, and Iceland here (by the same poster):

zakuivcustom wrote:

To be fair, having own flag and currency doesn't necessarily mean it's a sovereign state. Cayman Island has its own currency (It's also a UK Oversea Territory), so does Aruba, Curacao, and Sint-Maarten (Part of Kingdom of Netherlands).

Either way, just hard to say BDA is not "near" Hamilton, especially since Bermuda does not have another airport, unlike cases like NAN (vs. SUV), or even KEF (vs. RKV) in Iceland.

And the Iceland point is ridiculous, anyway. Saying KEF doesn't serve Reykjavik because RKV exists is like saying IAD doesn't serve Washington because DCA exists. If you want to do that, ICN is by far the busiest airport in South Korea, but it apparently doesn't serve Seoul because GMP exists. It's just nonsense.

masi1157 · Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:11 pm

IADCA wrote:
The trouble with your position that Iceland and the USA hadn't been mentioned yet is that both were already mentioned..

"Trouble" with my position? ok. I simply didn't see it. Sorry.

IADCA wrote:
And the Iceland point is ridiculous, anyway. Saying KEF doesn't serve Reykjavik because RKV exists ....It's just nonsense.

But you actually read my post, didn't you?

Gruß, masi1157

IADCA · Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:21 pm

masi1157 wrote:
IADCA wrote:
The trouble with your position that Iceland and the USA hadn't been mentioned yet is that both were already mentioned..

"Trouble" with my position? ok. I simply didn't see it. Sorry.

IADCA wrote:
And the Iceland point is ridiculous, anyway. Saying KEF doesn't serve Reykjavik because RKV exists ....It's just nonsense.

But you actually read my post, didn't you?

Gruß, masi1157

I did. I was agreeing with you on that point.

Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Re: Countries where the busiest airport is not in or near the capital

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net